Apple says it expects to have sold 10m iPhones by the end of the year, and if one market watcher's claim proves correct, it might even double that total.

According to Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, Apple has placed an order for 10m 3G iPhones. That's in addition to the 10m original iPhones Apple has said it expects to sell this year, Dulaney told website The iPod Observer.

Apparently, the 3G iPhone roll-out has been accelerated to meet the demands of Europeans, who have proved less satisfied by the iPhone's 2.5G download speeds than their transatlantic cousins have.

Dulaney's Asian moles also indicated that the 3G iPhone may ditch LCD in favour of OLED for its screen technology, the better to ensure there's plenty of battery power for the handset's 3G radio. Apple could use the OLED panel to make a thinner iPhone, or stick with the current size and fill it out with a bigger battery.

Digg's Kevin Rose, meanwhile, has speculated that the 3G iPhone will debut in June. Not a bad guess, since it would be a year after the release of the first version of the handset om 29 June 2007 and also the month in which Apple is expected to release iPhone OS 2.0 and the handset's online App Store.